'Gossip Girl' - 'The Sixteen Year Old Virgin' Recap

(S03E15) "Rufus is driving Jenny right into Damien's creepy arms." - Serena to Nate

This week's Jenny-centric episode made me notice how I missed seeing the entire gang working together towards a common goal. However, Chuck and Blair were left on the sidelines since he was occupied by Jack, Elizabeth, a lawsuit and a boycott.

No matter, it was refreshing to see Serena, Nate, Dan, Vanessa, Lily and Rufus all work hand in hand in order to locate Jenny and bring her back to safety -- location also known as "the loft where Jenny will be grounded for life."

Little Jenny

As Serena pointed it out, Rufus was driving Jenny right into Damien's arms. But what else could he have done? Accept that Jenny dates Damien after she broke the rules and even ran away for a while?

Once it was confirmed at the beginning of the episode that Jenny came back home and was grounded, it was pretty clear that she would lie to her father and meet up with Damien. The episode's title also gave us a good hint that Damien would want to do more than just kissing Jenny. With all the puzzle pieces in place, it was rather easy to discover the ending: Jenny would accept to sleep with Damien but would decide not to at the last minute.

The 'Gossip Girl' writers have tried to give Jenny an edge the past two seasons but they always kept Little J roaming around. So it was a safe bet that they wouldn't have her lose her virginity to drug dealer and manipulator Damien. It also gave them the opportunity to remind young viewers that they should lose their virginity with someone they love.

As I've pointed out in the introduction, I've enjoyed the fact that this Jenny-centric episode brought the most of the gang together. With the main cast off to college, they haven't been together as much as in the first season. Serena, Blair, Chuck, Dan, Nate, Vanessa and Jenny being in the same scenes, working together or working against one another was a key ingredient in making the show a success in its first season. We should have more scenes with the cast together in the future as these scenes rock, especially since a few characters are total opposites, which brings great dialogue.

Lily and Rufus

Yay! They are back together! Not only that but Rufus did not cheat on Lily. I'm glad the writers stayed true to the character and didn't have Rufus sleep with Holland. That said, the writers also stayed true to Lily and had her lie about her trip at the end of the episode.

It looks like Serena's father is involved in Lily's mother's recovery? If I understood properly and that Lily only sees him to help her mother, why hide it from Rufus? Could it be that the medical tests involve Lily somehow? Maybe her DNA or whatever else from Lily can help save her mother? Something experimental that could make Rufus not agree with what Lily is doing?

One thing is certain, Lily will have to tell the whole truth to Rufus eventually. Not only because it's a TV show and we know the truth usually comes out around Sweeps time but also because the lying seems to be hurting Lily. Her facial expression when she hugged Rufus at the end of the episode is proof of it.

Elizabeth and Jack

Jack is back with a vengeance!!! Sadly, he wasn't really convincing when trying to have people buy the fact that he changed. Is it just me or was Desmond Harrigton's acting off during this episode when he played Jack? I get that he wanted to play Jack as if he changed a bit but it almost felt like a new actor was playing Jack at times. His acting was even annoying me at times because I couldn't stop trying to find what was off instead of paying attention to the action.

Now that we know that Jack has been working with Elizabeth in order to get control of the hotel, I wonder if the DNA results are really the right ones. Could Jack, Elizabeth and the lawyer have paid Chuck's friend to send him false results? Or is Elizabeth really Chuck's mother and somehow Jack was able to get in her head and convince her to betray her son in order to get revenge on Bart?

I hope it's the latter and that, in the end, Elizabeth will break her deal with Jack so that Chuck gets a happy ending. Chuck deserves some good in his life after almost three years of tragedies, blackmail, backstabbing, etc.

What did you think of this week's episode? Why do you think Lily is hiding the reason why she's seeing her ex? What do you think is Elizabeth and Jack's ultimate plan? Do you believe she truly is Chuck's mother? Share your two cents in comments below.